Did Socrates commit suicide and why?
Upon taking the ethics class and learning and understanding the teachings of great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle I am even more driven to gather more knowledge about ethics as well as information about the above mentioned philosophers who have been instrumental in shedding light into the complex view on ethics. This is why I chose this topic, in order to explore whether Socrates actually did commit suicide and why he did so. After being familiar with the teachings and views of Socrates I believe that without doubt he was indeed a great man with great attributes and intellect. For a person as such who possessed such pedigree to even think of committing suicide is hard to imagine and fathom. The very man who is acclaimed to be the person solely responsible for laying the foundation of western philosophy, to commit one of the most cardinal and ethically unjust sins is worth pondering over and trying to understand for an answer.
I believe it is imperative to first of all understand the period and nature of environment Socrates lived in. Socrates lived during a time period where the transition from the height of the Athenian empire to its decline took place. Such a decline took place at the hands of Sparta where Athenians faced defeat in the Peloponnesian war (2006). Thus this was a time period where the Athenians were recovering from the humiliating defeat from Sparta. This was also a time in culture where Greeks believed and thought of gods and goddesses as being associated with protecting particular cities. They believed that Athens was protected by the Greek goddess Athena (2006). These aspects have great significance in shaping up the death of Socrates. Because mos ...